I visited the school in Beng Mealea, Cambodia, recently where the majority of our focus for project work is currently being put.  It was still very dry on the ground but rain had started on the previous afternoons, so it was looking as if the long dry spell, and inherent hardships, were finally coming to an end for the community.   We have at last lifted the roof off the left hand classroom at the school which was suffering from falling tiles due to a lack of cross-beams in the roof.  In order to put more beams in the whole roof was lifted off, old broken roofing sheets replaced, and then all put back together again.  The job took over a week to do and of course had to be done by outside contractors due to its  complexity and height.  Thanks to everyone who donated towards this part of the project.  Now we can really start to work on making the classrooms amazing places to learn from – I will keep you posted on progress.

The roof from the interior, showing additional cross beams and new sheets

The new roof from outside

First few courses of bricks laid for the new teacher accommodation block

The younger kids were doing their numbers, using small shells on the floor to write the number

 

Dubai International Academy’s (DIA) trip of Tanzania!

From the sand dunes of sunny United Arab Emirates to the muddy foothills of rainy Kilimanjaro.

I have never witnessed a group so excited about rain like DIA. We have been hosting many School expeditions over the years and one almost expects them to ask “where is the sun” when they arrive and the skies are grey. Well, it all came clear that this lot do not experience much rain, if at all any. It was great to see them celebrating with a little rain dance.

Immediately after exchanging pleasantries and the group had settled in, we took them on a familiarization tour of Mbokomu village and the school that they’ d be working at.
As the Swahili saying goes “Be a good host to your visitor on their first day, the next day give them a hoe to plough”. And so we did. Honeymoon was over, the Team was taken to Kiboriloni School to literally get their hands, shorts, t-shirts and faces dirty. They painted and drew murals on two classrooms in two days. With the short trips, students realize that they have very little time on projects and have targets to meet so what they tend to do is work their socks off on every activity that is thrown their way.

We changed the pace and engaged them in a typical Chagga (local tribe) cultural tour. The tour included helping a local lady with her daily chores such as; tending to her goats, fetching  water from the stream, and farming. Basically the students get to experience a day to day life of the locals. The tour is not considered complete unless everyone is wrapped in kanga’s (sarongs) and put in the mama’s smoky little kitchen to prepare lunch for themselves. Nothing could stop them from their cookery lesson, they were brave enough to stick around the kitchen despite smoke from burning firewood causing tears and sweat dripping from their eyes and faces!  Once in the village, you are considered one of them and you are expected to do what local people do including having your food while seated on a mat and using your hands to eat.

As we still had a bit of time left on our schedule, we  organized a football match with a group of local boys. Although the locals are used to playing all boys teams, they did not mind playing a mixed school and it was awesome to see boys and girls sharing the same playing field, which is a rarity in these parts of the world.

The day that needed everyone to be well prepared was here. The Kidia waterfall trek. It had rained through out the night and morning so the Team woke up thinking they had got away with it. You should have seen their faces when I announced to them that the trek was still on. Whilst we waited it off, they enjoyed a trip into town and spoiled themselves with Pizza’s at Indoitaliano restaurant followed by a supermarket run to get a few goodies before heading off to Kidia. In the meantime, the staff, and especially the local guide, were doing some Chagga rituals to the gods so that they could blow away the grey cloud that was hanging  over Moshi town. All the prayers and traditional chants worked. By the time the students had finished munching on their Pizza’s, the skies had cleared up and the sun was shinning.

The adventure ensued. The team had to take it slow and easy as the ground was still a bit wet and slippery and the trek was steep. With the help of the local guides, the entire Team managed to get down to the falls. Such an achievement and great feeling for the students as it was both fun and a challenge as some of them used their bottoms to climb down and the heavy rains made the waterfalls drop with such force. It was not just the trek down to the falls that took their breath away but the gauges, little farms, the beautiful, plentiful flora and fauna, greenery and the ever friendly locals who smiled and waved at the students whilst going about their daily chores.

   
The next day the group left bright and early to go to Tarangire National park for their safari. They saw loads of wildlife and enjoyed the game drives in their entirety.

On their return to camp, we had prepared a barbecue dinner for everyone as their last meal in Camp Tanzania. The group appreciated it very much as it was a great way to end their expedition. After dinner, the speeches ensued and we had a chance to ask the volunteers to sum up their entire trip in just one word. This is what they had to say;

It was great to see all the activities that we’d organized completed and the students and Teachers taking on all the tasks with a positive attitude and enthusiasm.

We were honored to host you and thank you for a great effort!

I wanted to post a few pictures from the recent IB Conference in Kuala Lumpur.  We normally have a stand at these sorts of conferences, once or twice a year, and gives us a chance to speak with a wide range of International Schools from across the world.  Ann our International Sales guru was running the stand this time around and did a fantastic job of making it appealing and snazzy.  The star of the show were the amazing bracelets made by the women of Mantanani out of plastic washed up on the beach – they are now the must have item in all IB schools around the globe! 

I was over in Cambodia last week and spent a few hours in the school at Beng Mealea which forms the main focus of our project work there.  Usually when i visit the school the children have finished their lessons for the day so it was great to be there with it bulging with kids going about their studies.     Cambodia is currently very dry, so the school looked very brown and dusty, with most of the vegetation having died a few weeks back.

View of rear of school, past chicken sheds to the temporary classroom we have built previously

The picture above shows the level in the pond and really demonstrates the critical problems Cambodia suffers during the dry season.  The large water tank which sits between the two main classrooms is slowly depleting and soon the school may have to start using water from this pond for cooking with.  The picture also shows the roof of the main classroom – the right hand building needs the roof lifting and more supports putting in place to prevent the sheets falling down – you can just make out a few holes in the right hand roof.

The temporary classroom we have built previously being put to good use

Work on the library cum classroom has progressed a little but with the funds now available should be finished off in the coming weeks/months.  The initial beams and supports are now in place and it just needs the roof sheeting putting on and then plastering inside and out, painting and equipping before it can become useable.  This will then free up a classroom and mean less reliance on the temporary classrooms.

Main A frames and beams in place, ready for sheeting.

One of the projects which has become more pressing is the teacher accommodation block – here is the current classroom up to 6 teachers currently live in.

The exterior of the current teacher accommodation does not fully demonstrate the squalid and cramped conditions inside

We have this past week started work on the new teacher accommodation block which is estimated to cost around $17,000 and will provide 5 separate rooms for the teachers – whilst it is not luxurious the change in the teacher’s lives will be marked.  We have started to lay out and dig the foundations as shown below.

Initial work on the foundations for the teacher block

This work is likely to take us several months to complete.  Meanwhile life will continue in the school as normal.  While i was there i witnessed one of the teachers cooking on the infamous double open hearth open air oven – the food is provided by the World Food Programme and gives the children a hot cooked meal, for many of whom this will be the only meal of the day.  They certainly piled the food high on their plate and were very focused on consuming every last bit.

A teacher serves the chicken soup to go with their rice.

A little girl helps herself to some rice

Digging in to their food

Finally i want to give a massive massive thanks to everyone who has donated on the Just Giving page for Beng Mealea.  I have been overwhelmed by people’s generosity, raising GBP5,500 in just a few weeks.  Everyone’s donation is much appreciated, no matter how small or big – as i always like to say “lots of littles make a big” – i think this applies not only to donations but to the work we are doing at the school – slowly but surely we are making a difference in the school’s day to day life.  Thank you everyone who has been involved – i am truly humbled by all your efforts.

I have spent the past few days accompanying a school team from Gems World Academy from Dubai during their service project trip to Cambodia.  The team got stuck into several days of hard service project work at the school in Beng Mealea which they all enjoyed, despite the heat and the toil.

In particular they mentioned that the most memorable part of the trip was seeing the smiles on the students faces and having some of them working alongside them from time to time.

The team helped with cutting the joints in the woodwork for the beams

The team kindly bought several hundred dollars worth of pens and books which were handed to the school on their last day.  I could see that many members of the team were greatly moved and affected by their experience at the school which to me is what our trips are all about.

The team visited the classes including this one in the temporary classroom we have built previously

Thank you Gems World Academy – it was fun meeting you and thanks for your hard work and contribution to the school.

Kayleigh Staples one of our School Expedition Co-ordinators left chilly UK to travel with a lead teacher to Cambodia over half term. We asked her for a record of her trip, just to make sure she remembered everything and here is her blog.

After a coach, two long flights with my new teacher friend Steve and a car journey we (at last) arrived in Siem Reap. The week long trip was jam-packed to say the least and I still cannot believe how much we managed to cram in!

Siem Reap is an incredible town full of rickshaws, bars, restaurants and night markets (foot massage in the night market was incredible and perfect after a long flight!)

We spent time on the tourist trail visiting lots of temples including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which where steeped in ancient history which our local guide kindly explained to us on the way round.

The highlight of the week for me was without doubt the jungle trek. We spent around 4 hours trekking through the Kuelen National park, stopping off on the way at temples and saw some amazing sights. We had lunch in a village hidden away in the national park and finished the day perfectly by going to visit the waterfalls. This was without doubt the best sight I saw whilst over there, especially the moment a rainbow appeared in the waterfall, beautiful! 

Next stop was Camp Beng Meala! We got acquainted with the gap year students out there at the moment over some lunch cooked beautifully by the camps staff. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how nice/clean/welcoming the camp was! Bunlay and Rory gave us the grand tour and talked us through how the compost toilets work (very interesting).

We where then swept over to the local primary school that Camps are currently working on and I think we where all shocked to see the sorry state that the classrooms where in. There where giant holes in the roof, bare walls and minimum light coming in. We where then made aware of the current kitchen facilities which where so much worse. On a more positive note the work that the students have been getting along with looks great, they are part way through building a new temporary classroom and a new kitchen, which is great. However progress is slow due to not really having enough “bodies” to do the work, which is a terrible shame as there is so much that needs improving.

 We headed down to Phnom Penn towards the end of the week to do some more touristy stuff. We where taken for a guided tour around the killing fields and S21 prison aka – torture chambers. It was shocking to find out the extent of torture and murder that went on in Cambodia only 30 years ago and fascinating to learn about the history of it all, as it is so recent.

The Killing Fields in Phnom Pehn

All in all I would go as far to say that it was a life changing week, it has truly opened my eyes to a country full of wonderful people that is still on its knees from a devastating regime that ruined the country not so long ago. The Cambodian people are so warm and welcoming and I would love to go back! Massive thanks to Bunlay and Rory for taking care of us and showing us just how inspiring Cambodia and its people are! Steve is now looking forward to his school expedition in 2013. If you want to know more about our school expeditions to Cambodia then why not give me a call on 01425485390

Bunlay

Over and out.